By Rafe Calder
A small glazed child with an umbrella started as a drawing on a postcard. Here is the short, documented version of how it became a figure, from the three sources we could read.
The artist
According to German Wikipedia, Maria Innocentia Hummel was born Berta Hummel on 21 May 1909 in Massing, Lower Bavaria, and died on 6 November 1946 at Kloster Sießen. English Wikipedia says she was one of six children of Adolf and Victoria Hummel, went at twelve to a boarding school in Simbach am Inn, and in 1927 enrolled at the Academy of Applied Arts in Munich. Both articles say she graduated in 1931 with top honours. The German article says she entered the Franciscan convent of Sießen the same year. English Wikipedia gives the dates of postulant (April 1931), novice (22 August 1931) and perpetual vows (30 August 1937). The German article gives 22 August 1933 for the habit and 30 August 1934 for her profession. The two articles differ here, and we show both.
From postcards to figures
English Wikipedia says the convent sent copies of her work to Emil Fink Verlag in Stuttgart, which issued them as postcards, and that in 1934 the publisher brought out Das Hummel-Buch, with text by Margarete Seemann. Franz Goebel, owner of a porcelain company, saw the postcards in a Munich shop and sought the rights. German Wikipedia says that in 1934, after a meeting with Hummel and the Sießen Mother Superior, Franz Goebel, co-owner of Porzellanfabrik W. Goebel in Rödental, received the licence to turn her drawings into figures. English Wikipedia says the convent granted sole rights, and that Hummel agreed mainly because the work would give jobs to many people. One article calls him owner, the other co-owner; we leave that as written.
1935
The figures were presented in 1935. German Wikipedia says the first colour-glazed fine ceramic sculptures were modelled by the Goebel sculptors Arthur Möller and Reinhold Unger, and that figures were shown at the Leipzig spring fair that year and shipped to the United States in the thousands. English Wikipedia’s article on the figurines says 46 motifs were on sale by the end of 1935, and that they were sold in America through Marshall Field & Co. of Chicago. It also says production has run in Rödental since 1935.
Who checked the figures
This is the point a collector should know. German Wikipedia says the convent and the Hummel family, working with modellers, painters and the Goebel management, checked each figure for consistency with the artist’s style and intent. The English article on the figurines says production took place under the strict oversight of the Convent of Siessen. The articles do not describe how the check was done, how long it lasted, or whether it continued after her death in 1946. The German article says over 400 different figures were made over the years.
How they reached collectors
English Wikipedia says that after the Second World War American soldiers in West Germany sent the figurines home, and that sales through the army exchange system added to their popularity. English Wikipedia’s article on Hummel herself puts American popularity about a decade after 1935, after returning soldiers brought them back. The same article says travellers also bought them as folk-style souvenirs, and that a collectors’ club was founded in the United States in 1977 and renamed the M. I. Hummel Club when it went international in 1989. The two English articles thus give slightly different pictures of how the American market began, and we show both.
The works and the museum
German Wikipedia says production at Goebel ended in late October 2008 and that a successor works in Rödental resumed making figures on 9 February 2009. English Wikipedia’s figurine article adds later changes of ownership, and we have left those out, along with every sum. The Berta-Hummel-Museum in the Hummelhaus in Massing, her parents’ house, opened in 1994 according to the English article, which calls its figurines the largest collection in Europe. German Wikipedia calls it the world’s largest private collection of the figures and says it closed on 22 July 2019, with a reopening planned in a new building at the open-air museum in Massing. We cannot say whether it has reopened. The German article also names a Hummel-Saal at Kloster Sießen showing a major collection of her paintings and drawings.
What the sources do not say
We looked for the things a buyer wants most: the clay body, the stamp or mark on the base, how marks changed with the years, and how to tell a genuine piece from a copy. None of the three articles covers them. The German article says her signature usually reads “Hummel” or “M.I.Hummel”, with a J-shaped “I” and a line over the “u”, but that is the signature on drawings, not a factory mark. So we do not claim anything about marks, bees or crowns. Anyone who needs to date a piece should ask the producer or a museum with a collection, not this page.
Dates in order
- 21 May 1909: birth in Massing, according to German Wikipedia.
- 1931: graduation; entry to the convent, according to both articles.
- 1934: the Goebel licence and Das Hummel-Buch, according to German and English Wikipedia.
- 1935: first figures at the Leipzig fair, according to German Wikipedia.
- 6 November 1946: her death, according to both articles.
- 1977 and 1989: the collectors’ club, according to English Wikipedia.
- 1994: the Massing museum opens, according to English Wikipedia.
- Late October 2008: production at Goebel ends, according to German Wikipedia.
What kind of sources these are
Three Wikipedia articles: one in German on the figurines, and two in English, on the figurines and on the artist. We could find no museum or producer page that loaded. This is single-type sourcing.
Questions a buyer would ask
Who drew the original designs? Berta Hummel, both articles say. Who made them? Goebel, in Rödental, from 1935. Can this page date my piece? No.
What we left out
Prices, auction talk, the artist’s wartime hardships, ownership changes and any ranking of marks.
Quick answers
Who was the artist behind Hummel figurines? According to Wikipedia, Berta Hummel, later Sister Maria Innocentia, born 21 May 1909 in Massing and a convent member from 1931.
When did Hummel figurines first appear? German Wikipedia says the first figures were presented in 1935, made by the Goebel works in Rödental.
Did the convent approve the designs? German Wikipedia says the convent and the Hummel family checked each figure against the artist’s style and intent.
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Roam first. Shop later.